128A Notice Requirements: Adding to the Burden or Preventing Fraud for the Texas Probate System?

This Comment will focus on the implications of requiring notice in the traditionally streamlined Texas probate system and explore the practical impact of the new notice requirements for attorneys and families. Because any analysis of the changes must begin with the text of the statute, Part II notes the previous notice requirements and explains what the new requirements are in section 128A. Part III begins with a brief history and overview of the probate system and the development of independent administrations in Texas. Next, Part IV examines the policy behind independent administrations, why the new notice requirements could pose a conflict and then considers the remedies already available to beneficiaries who feel that an executor has mismanaged estate assets. Finally, Part IV addresses why these remedies are inadequate without the new notice requirements. This Comment concludes that even though the notice requirements pose a policy conflict and a potential for increased cost and inconvenience, the benefits of notifying beneficiaries outweigh these problems. Beneficiaries need to be in a position to demand an accounting or remove an executor who they feel has mismanaged the estate assets. Further, any policy considerations currently underlying the independent administration system are intended to benefit beneficiaries and family members of the testator, and a statute that requires notice to these individuals necessarily strengthens that policy